Evil's Soft Side
by huffleclaw22
Summary: Daphne comforts Goyle during one of his rare emotional breakdowns that occur when he remembers Crabbe. (Please don't say Goyle is OOC...I think even the bad guys can get really really sad sometimes). T for a few swear-words.


**A/N: JKR OWNS ALL.**

**Set c. 2007 (characters are 27)**

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Daphne couldn't sleep. Her husband had refused to come to bed, demanding that she leave him alone for a few minutes to think about something, but now it had been much longer than a few minutes. In fact, it had been a few _hours_.

Groaning sleepily to herself, she crawled out of bed, and threw on her pink silk robe over her nightdress. "Lumos," she lit her wand. Being very careful not to wake their three children, she quietly crept down the hall and down the large staircase that overlooked the living room.

Sure enough, Gregory Goyle was sitting on the dark teal leather sofa, sulking as he looked longingly into the flames that roared in their fireplace. "Greggy, are you okay?" she asked him gently, walking into the room.

He didn't look at her, but she hadn't expected him to. "He's in there Daphie...mockin' me. Crabbe!" he slurred with a loud sniffle, indicating that he was drowning his sorrows in wizard booze again.

Every once in a while, even big bad Goyle broke down and cried over his best friend, who had been lost to an out of control Fiendfyre curse during the Battle of Hogwarts. Crabbe had started the Fiendfyre in hopes of killing the 'Golden Trio' but it had backfired and he was engulfed by the flames instead while Harry and Ron managed to rescue Draco and Goyle on broomsticks. Even after about ten years, it was still vivid in Goyle's mind.

"Shhh Greggy, it's alright," Daphne went over and sat beside him, pulling his head to rest against her breasts.

"No Daphie, 'ts not..." Goyle choked on angry sobs. "Should'a been Potter...or the filthy mudblood..."

"I know, it's unfair," Daphne whispered as she cradled his head in her lap. "-that the scum of the world gets off scotch free simply because they're heroic and brave, while those of us who try to take back what was originally ours and purify our world end up locked in Azkaban or defeated."

"SO UNFAIR!" Goyle roared, scrambling to his feet and picking up the empty bottle of Firewhiskey off the glass table. He threw it angrily against the wall, where it shattered into hundreds of teensy pieces.

"Greggy please don't do this," Daphne pleaded, watching helplessly from the sofa. "Don't wake the children."

"F*CKING POTTER! MUDBLOOD! WEASEL! SHOULD'A BEEN 'EM!" Goyle yelled furiously. He was shuddering with angry sobs as he knocked portraits off the walls.

"Gregory stop this! Please come here, let me hold you, let me help you calm down!" Daphne begged. She hated seeing him like this, it hurt her to see her husband in so much pain.

From the top of the stairs, their children were watching their father have one of his rare emotional breakdowns. Julian Edern was six with his father's brown hair and his mother's emerald eyes, Aaron Nisien was five with his mother's blonde hair and his father's amber eyes, and Aurora Ceridwen was three with her mother's blonde hair and emerald eyes. All of them looked sleepy and confused, and to an extent...afraid.

Daphne noticed them there out of the corner of her eye, and shooed them off to go back to sleep. When she turned her attention back to her husband, he had crumpled to the floor, sobbing hysterically and beating and kicking the ground with his feet and fists.

"...not fair...Crabbe...should'a been the mudblood..." he choked out into the dark colored carpeting.

"Look at me, Greggy look at me," Daphne whispered, rubbing his back gently as she lowered herself onto the floor beside him.

Goyle looked up into the twinkling emerald eyes of his wife, and tried to collect himself. "I'm so sorry Daphie...even a dark wizards can cry sometimes, can't they?" he asked her, gently stroking her soft and somewhat curly blonde hair.

Daphne looked down into the bright amber eyes of her husband, and forced a tiny smile. "It's alright Greggy, and yes, even dark wizards cry too," she whispered. It was strange to her, seeing him so helpless when he was usually so aggressive.

Gregory Goyle knew he wasn't smart, or brave, or 'good'. But he did know that he missed Crabbe so much sometimes, that the grief was unbearable, causing his breakdowns.

Daphne understood this of course. For as long as she could remember, it had always been 'Crabbe and Goyle'. They had done everything together, even as small children, and together they followed Draco around as his personal bodyguards. Even Draco, according to her sister Astoria, still felt very sad at times thinking of his lost friend Crabbe. But everyone knew it was the hardest on Goyle.

"I miss him Daphne," Goyle whispered, looking once more into the crackling flames.

"I know you do," Daphne whispered back, and she really did.


End file.
